My original take on a very common theme in Anime.

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I watched as the Clarke twins entered the classroom.  Ada held the
door open with one hand for her sister while holding her bookbag with
the other.  Then Nadia came limping in on her crutch.

I can't help it.  They're so identical, and of course completely
different.

Ada stood there while Nadia swung into her seat then handed over the
bookbag and took the crutch before taking her seat behind her sister.

I turned back to Linda.  She wasn't looking at me.  That was my
fault.  I had cut off our conversation. "Um."

"Yes?" She turned my way.

"What were we talking about?"

"You were telling me about the movie you saw last night."

"Yeah.  And then after the big explosion they went to, where was that
place?"

"Ace car dealership."

"Oh," she had seen the movie before, or at least she had now.  I'm
such a loser.

Mr. Linkman came in and the class settled down.  All the boys and
girls took out our notebooks while the honeys sat there with their
hands folded in front of them.

Mr. Linkman's lecture was on the lifecycle of honeybees and the way
he droned on matched the subject.

I was nodding off when I heard a snap.  I looked over and Nadia was
quietly swearing at her broken pencil.  She held it up and Ada
replaced it with another pencil.

Mr. Linkman ignored the distraction and continued, "So as you can see
while the worker bees are technically female they put their energy
into running the colony rather than reproducing themselves."

"Just like the honeys!"

"Mr. Phillips!  We do not use that sort of language in this
classroom."

"Ah, the honeys don't mind," Chuck Phillips swept his hand past the
students.  He was right of course, none of the honeys had even raised
an eyebrow at his comment.

"Apologize to all of the students in the classroom."

Nadia turned around and glared back at Chuck.

"Alright, I didn't mean anything by it.  I'm sorry honest."

The next class was Math and Mr. Jones didn't call on any of the
honeys of course.  What was the point?

That changed in English Lit when Mr. Freeman asked, "How did that
poem make you feel, Linda?"

"Samuel Hodkisk said that the poem reminded him of cold winters
mornings in the moments before rising."

"I asked what it made you feel."

"It didn't make me feel anything Sir.  I don't have the cultural
connection."

"If you can't find the courage to express your own opinion then
you're useless.  Your assignment is to write a five page report on
this poem by tomorrow, without plagiarism or references to anything
but this work."

"Yes Sir."

That was too harsh, to accuse her of cheating.  She wouldn't do that.
She couldn't.

On the way to lunch Nadia spoke with the other two girls from the
class, Beth and Susan, while Ada walked two steps behind her.  Nadia
struggled to not slow them down, but the other girls kept back to her
pace.

I turned back to Linda, "That was too harsh.  He just about accused
you of cheating."

"I can see his reasons.  I didn't have an answer for his question."

"Well, if I can help with anything."

"The assignment was for --"  Linda was cut off by the sound of rubber
skidding on the floor.  She spun around and moved faster than I could
follow with my eyes.

I blinked and saw that Ada was holding Nadia from behind while
Frances had knelt in front of her to catch her.  Linda had moved to
catch the crutch before it could hit Beth.  The other honeys hadn't
moved.  They were either too far away or there were humans in the
way.

Ada and Frances lifted Nadia to her feet then Linda handed her crutch
back.

"Careful Sister,"  Ada shifted her grip to Nadia's shoulders.

"My sister's dead,"  Nadia pulled free of Ada's grasp and looked down
to get the rhythm of walking again then turned to Beth, "Sorry about
that."

"No harm done."

Linda walked back to me, "The assignment was for me alone."

"Well there's no rule against showing it to me.  So email me a copy
and I'll take a look at it."

"As you wish."

My cellphone beeped.  I didn't have to look to know what it was.

In the cafeteria Ada walked with Nadia to her seat then took her
place in the line.  The other honeys just sat.

Me and the rest of the boys yielded to the girls and Ada, who was
acting as a stand in.

I started to read Linda's paper on my cellphone while waiting in line
then took my tray to sit across from her.  I saw that the three girls
were sitting together, with Ada, while the other honeys were spread
out. Some of them talked with the boys who chose to sit with them,
but none of the honeys talked with each other.  Well that wasn't
true, they were always talking with each other, but not in a way we
could hear.

I held my cellphone in one hand while I ate with the other, "It's too
mechanical."

"Oh?"  Linda sat in her default pose with her hands on the table in
front of her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that.  I mean, your paper, it's all
about how the poem is laid out and the rhythms in it.  Nothing about
what it means."

"I was instructed to not use references."

"Then don't use anybody who's commented on this poem.  Look for other
matches to the concepts as used in other works and combine them
together for this poem."

"Wouldn't that just be a composition of the work of others?"

"It's what we do, but we forget were we learned the bits we use.
Just try it, okay?"

"If you think that's best."

She had retreated back in her shell.  All the honeys were so damn
afraid of sticking their necks out and actually admitting to feeling
anything. But Linda was special and I knew I could gently guide her
out to being herself again, but it would take a while.

After lunch we had P.E.  The girls went off to do yoga in the shade,
with Ada tagging along with Nadia.  The rest of us split into two
Soccer teams. The other side chose first, so they had six boys to our
five, but that gave us 4 honeys to their three.  I picked Linda as
our first honey.

As we setup for the game I saw they had wasted their one boy
advantage by using Greg as their goalie, while we used Grace as our
goalie.

On the first play Linda got the ball and moved forwards, but Chuck
ran up and deliberately kicked at her.  She jumped forwards to avoid
him while kicking the ball back to me.  Because Chuck and Larry were
both in front of me it was a fair pass.  I took the kick, but Greg
blocked it.

Greg passed to Larry, but Frances kicked it away from him and it
wound up between Erna and Linda, who stood there instantly countering
any move the other made.  Chuck ran at them and Erna was forced to
evade him first so Linda passed to me before getting out of his way.

I ran forwards, but Chuck got in my face.

"You like it, don't you?  That thing."

I stumbled so Chuck got the ball and ran towards our goal.

He ran into the goal, forcing Grace to jump out of his way.

Coach Winters called a foul for the reckless charging, canceling the
goal.

At the end of the period the score was tied zero to zero.  The boys
where winded and sweating, but not as bad as the honeys, who were
panting.

I was feeling thirsty and was tempted to lick Linda's sweat, which
would be distilled, rather than salt water, but she'd never allow it.
First it would cause her social programming to freak out and second
she'd be worried about the tiny chance she'd have a hydraulic leak
she wasn't aware of yet.

Prior to her last moult she would have been almost this bad from just
a little more emergency speed than she'd used earlier.  I couldn't
decide if it was technological improvement or just her increased body
mass.  I could have asked her, but treating her like a machine
wouldn't make her any better.

Last period was health, which was the other subject Professor Winters
taught.  Today it was about the plague.

"While for most people the Rajasthan Flu is little worse than any
other cold, for unknown reasons it is especially hard on infant
girls. Causing in most cases death and in a few cases severe damage
to the nervous system."

He had to look away from Nadia at that point.  I can only imagine
what kind of look she was giving him.

After school I walked silently with Linda and then at her house I
asked, "Next Saturday?"

"Yes?"

"That's your birthday, isn't it?"

"So humans can remember a few things?"

"The important things.  I was wondering, will you have some sort of
party?"

"Yes Linda Burks was born on May 14th, but she died exactly one year
later.  My parents and my brothers do not celebrate that day.
Instead we visit her grave."

-HJC